Comments on: Blind to e-book possibilities, the Economist knocks the OLPC machine http://www.teleread.org/2008/01/09/blind-to-e-book-possibilities-economist-knocks-the-olpc-machine/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:25:26 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Robert Nagle http://www.teleread.org/2008/01/09/blind-to-e-book-possibilities-economist-knocks-the-olpc-machine/comment-page-1/#comment-687029 Robert Nagle Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:43:11 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/01/09/blind-to-e-book-possibilities-economist-knocks-the-olpc-machine/#comment-687029 A <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Clunky_laptop" rel="nofollow">feisty response to the Economist article </a> is here. To extend on one of their points. Even if the machine is buggy, that does not prove that students cannot learn on it. But has the threshhold of frustration been reached? A feisty response to the Economist article is here.

To extend on one of their points. Even if the machine is buggy, that does not prove that students cannot learn on it. But has the threshhold of frustration been reached?

]]> By: Bill Janssen http://www.teleread.org/2008/01/09/blind-to-e-book-possibilities-economist-knocks-the-olpc-machine/comment-page-1/#comment-686230 Bill Janssen Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:34:25 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/01/09/blind-to-e-book-possibilities-economist-knocks-the-olpc-machine/#comment-686230 Over Christmas, a five-year-old female relative of mine brought her XO along when her family came to visit. She must have spent an hour showing me how to use various features -- take a picture with it, draw on the picture, read a (kid's) book. She was jazzed. So, anecdote to anecdote, those various stumbling blocks cited didn't seem to be insuperable. Don't think she tried installing a Flash player to watch YouTube videos :-) Over Christmas, a five-year-old female relative of mine brought her XO along when her family came to visit. She must have spent an hour showing me how to use various features — take a picture with it, draw on the picture, read a (kid’s) book. She was jazzed. So, anecdote to anecdote, those various stumbling blocks cited didn’t seem to be insuperable. Don’t think she tried installing a Flash player to watch YouTube videos :-)

]]> By: pond http://www.teleread.org/2008/01/09/blind-to-e-book-possibilities-economist-knocks-the-olpc-machine/comment-page-1/#comment-686206 pond Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:54:36 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/01/09/blind-to-e-book-possibilities-economist-knocks-the-olpc-machine/#comment-686206 The Economist article is terrible, a hack-job with much hacking. I would say the greatest problem about the article is that the author does not seem to understand the purpose or market of the XO. He laments that it is not as good as his other laptop. He has not seen a child play/learn with it. He does not seem to understand that tech products get better over time; one can only assume that if he drove a ca. 1907 automobile he would dismiss the future of cars. He does not understand the superior technology of the XO compared to the Everex, the Zonbu, or the Classmate PC -- for the proposed markets. And finally he engages in downright deception, along the lines of: "A few trials in places like Haiti and Rwanda, together with orders from Peru and Uruguay collectively fell far short of even 1m machines. A clever holiday promotion in North America that offered two laptops--one for the buyer and one to donate to a child in a developing country--for $399 similarly fizzled. Production lines at Quanta Computer, a Taiwanese manufacturer, were left idle." The XO continues to polarize the press. Some people get it, and others just don't understand. The Economist article is terrible, a hack-job with much hacking. I would say the greatest problem about the article is that the author does not seem to understand the purpose or market of the XO. He laments that it is not as good as his other laptop. He has not seen a child play/learn with it. He does not seem to understand that tech products get better over time; one can only assume that if he drove a ca. 1907 automobile he would dismiss the future of cars. He does not understand the superior technology of the XO compared to the Everex, the Zonbu, or the Classmate PC — for the proposed markets.

And finally he engages in downright deception, along the lines of:

“A few trials in places like Haiti and Rwanda, together with orders from Peru and Uruguay collectively fell far short of even 1m machines. A clever holiday promotion in North America that offered two laptops–one for the buyer and one to donate to a child in a developing country–for $399 similarly fizzled. Production lines at Quanta Computer, a Taiwanese manufacturer, were left idle.”

The XO continues to polarize the press. Some people get it, and others just don’t understand.

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